Thursday, October 13, 2016

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has issued a transfer order to the official who exposed air safety violations carried out in granting building height clearances to structures around the Mumbai and Juhu airports. The whistle-blower alleged that the out-of-turn transfer flouted government service norms and was to harass her.
In a letter to the AAI chairman last week, Mangala Narasimhan, AAI deputy general manager (aviation safety), requested cancellation of the September 12 order which transfers her to Kolkata. After the order, a reliving order was issued on September 22.
"The sudden out-of-turn transfer has been a shock as AAI had completed this year's transfers in the air traffic control cadre, to which I belong, in June itself. What made things worse is that the transfer and reliving orders were issued in a hurry when I was on leave," Mangala told TOI. "My daughter will appear for the board exams this academic year. Under AAI service norms, officials whose kids are to appear for board exams are exempted from transfer till the exams are over. But the hurried orders did not give me time to even get a certificate from my daughter's school and defer the transfer," she added.
The AAI regional director was not available for comment.
13/10/16 The Times Of India